


Three Danbert Prompt Fills

by mirawonderfulstar



Category: Re-Animator (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Greek Mythology, Canon-Typical Violence, Domestic, M/M, Peru, Prompt Fill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-06
Updated: 2020-01-06
Packaged: 2021-02-27 07:00:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,895
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22142959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mirawonderfulstar/pseuds/mirawonderfulstar
Summary: Prompts: "exhaustion nap on the other’s shoulder" // "villain captures one of the protags but gets angry on their behalf when it looks like no one is coming to save them" // "danbert arguing about whether to get takeout bc u Know neither of them can cook"The first is set in Peru before Bride of Reanimator, the second is a short Hades and Persephone AU, and the third is just some domestic bickering set at some unspecified time.
Relationships: Daniel Cain/Herbert West
Comments: 5
Kudos: 51





	1. Exhaustion Nap

They hike out of the jungle. Well, Herbert hikes out of the jungle and half-carries, half-drags an only intermittently lucid Dan along with him. It’s the second time he’s been injured in as many months, but more than that, it’s the final straw in a veritable thatched roof of deaths since they’ve been in Peru. One too many people they’ve failed to save, and Dan is a good deal worse for it.

Herbert considers the possibility they’ll be reported as deserters and dismisses it. More likely they’ll be assumed dead in the attack on the camp. He’ll spin some story about heroism and narrow escapes when they make it back to Arkham. 

Because Herbert wants, very badly, to return to Arkham. Quite apart from anything else, Dan was happy there. Dan has been happy so infrequently in the last few months and while Herbert doesn’t delude himself that returning home will reset everything back to the way it was before the deaths of Megan and Dean Halsey, it’s at least somewhere to start. Something to apologize for dragging him into a war zone, iguanas or no iguanas. 

It takes them nearly two days to make it to a road, and by that time Dan is walking and his wound is, if not healed, at least manageable. Herbert breathes a sigh of relief when he takes the dressing off and sees that his stitches seem to be sitting alright. He tells Dan of his intended destination and Dan just shrugs, not looking at him, staring into the hastily-made fire at the edge of a clearing, within sight of the road so they can watch for any passing vehicle. Herbert offers to take first watch, wants Dan to try and sleep if he can, and Dan complies with little feeling. It makes something writhe guiltily in the pit of Herbert’s stomach, this protracted apathy. 

Nobody comes along the narrow path through the jungle during the night, and so they set out walking come sunrise. Dan, usually one to question Herbert’s sense of direction, does not make any objections all day, and it is Herbert alone who expresses relief when a truck on its way to the city gives them a ride. 

The road is bumpy and the interior of the truck stuffy, but their rescuer is quiet and does not comment when Dan lets out a sigh and lays his head on Herbert’s shoulder. Herbert catches the man’s eye in the rearview mirror for a moment, and he raises his eyebrows in Dan’s direction. 

“You two here with the American military?” He asks in Spanish, and Herbert replies in the affirmative. “Where are you headed?” 

Dan snuffles slightly against Herbert, and Herbert glances at him to see his eyes have drifted closed and the pinched, tense look on his face has softened slightly. 

“Home.” Herbert says, still looking at Dan, asleep against him like he frequently uses Herbert as a pillow. 

“I can take you as far as Borja although if you want to fly back to the states you’ll have to find a way to Chiclayo.” 

“Thank you, Borja will be fine.” Herbert says. There is a smudge of dirt on Dan’s cheek and Herbert isn’t sure whether he can rub it away without waking Dan up. Instead he tentatively wraps an arm around him and leans his cheek against the top of his head. It’s a nice feeling, Dan’s weight against him. 

They stay like that the rest of the drive, Herbert curled protectively around Dan, watching the jungle recede into the distance behind them. 


	2. Hades and Persephone AU

Dan wakes up with a pounding headache and a dry mouth. He groans when he sits up and tries to lift a hand to rub at his eyes, but finds them covered in dirt. He’s lying in the dirt. In a garden, he realizes, looking around. There are trees, young springy white trees covered in fruit that almost glows, jewel-bright, growing out of the black earth. There is water running somewhere nearby. It’s dark, and a bit chilly, and at first Dan assumes it is night but then he looks up and sees not the sky, but the ceiling of a cave. There are stalactites glistening far above rather than stars, dripping water down into the stream nearby. 

“Oh, good, you’re awake.” Comes a clipped voice, and Dan looks around the dim cave for the source. There’s a man standing behind a flat rock formation, almost like a desk, spread with glass jars, what looks to be a Bunsen burner, the luminescent fruit, stacks of paper, small instruments, a coiled distilling set… tools from a chemistry lab. “I was afraid for a while I’d hit you too hard.” 

Dan’s eyes jerk back to the man and he glares. “Did you knock me out?” 

“Yes.” He says simply, not looking up from his work. He’s measuring something out with an eyedropper. 

Dan stands up and brushes his hands off on the front of his jeans. “May I ask why?” He says with some annoyance as he approaches the table and sees that his kidnapper is actually rather short. How did he even carry him to… wherever he is now? 

He still doesn’t look up, now intent on dropping the liquid onto a small section of the luminescent fruit. He’s eye level with the table, bending over with his tongue sticking out between his teeth. “You’re bait for Carl Hill.” 

“I’m _what?"_ Dan is caught completely off-guard, not least of all because the idea that Dr. Hill would exert any effort whatsoever to help him is absurd. “Who _are_ you?” 

The liquid drops onto the fruit and sizzles. There is a great cloud of smoke, bright green and smelling of wet earth. The man straightens up again, looking satisfied. “West.” Dan raises his eyebrows uncomprehendingly. “Herbert West.” 

“Should that name mean something to me?” Dan asks, and Herbert clicks his tongue. 

“Has Hill never mentioned me?” 

Dan leans his hip against the stone table, his arms crossed. “I think, unfortunately, you might not have done your research very thoroughly before running out and kidnapping somebody. I’m a student of Hill’s at the medical school, and no, I’ve never heard him talk about a Herbert West.” 

“How about a Hans Gruber?” Herbert asks. Dan shakes his head, and Herbert’s brows come together as he purses his lips. 

“That is disappointing. You _are_ Daniel Cain, yes?” Dan nods. “Well.” 

“What do you want with Hill?” 

It’s not important.” Herbert says dismissively. He comes around the table, removing a pair of gloves as he goes, and steps quite close to Dan, looking up at his face like he’s examining him for traces of lying. “Are you not dating the Dean’s daughter?” 

“Yes, I’m dating Meg Halsey. What does that have to do with Hill?” 

“He’s a close family friend, and naturally the one I’d assume the Halseys would send out to rescue someone dear to them from the underworld.” Herbert laughs humorlessly. “The gods know neither of them would willingly come down themselves without very good reason.” 

“You’ve made a mistake,” Dan says, shaking his head. “Hill hates me. He’s had some kind of thing for Meg for years. He’d probably be glad to see me trapped below.” 

Herbert’s frown deepens. “Surely Dean Halsey, then. Or Megan herself. Surely someone’s coming to find you.” 

“I really doubt it.” Dan shakes his head again. Herbert’s expression hardens. 

“That’s… that’s despicable. And they act like _I’m_ morally repulsive.” Herbert eyes him for a moment. “Does your head hurt badly?” 

It does, in fact, and Dan says so. Herbert takes a fresh glass from the table and crosses the cave, kneeling down by the stream flowing through the rock. He scoops a measure of water into the beaker and brings it back to Dan. “Drink, you’ll feel better.” 

Dan drinks, and finds, to his surprise, that he does. The dryness of his mouth is certainly better, at any rate, and it does seem to be working on his headache somewhat. He was probably dehydrated. 

“So.” Dan says as he sets the glass down. “Are you going to let me go, then? Try again, maybe with Meg herself? Because if you think I’m going to let you drag my girlfriend down here to lure a professor from the university-” 

“No, no, I have no designs on your girlfriend.” Herbert waves a hand dismissively. “And I will of course let you go, if that’s what you’d like. Only…” He pauses, and a flicker of something passes over his face. Something sad. 

“What?” Dan asks. 

“It’s only… well.” Herbert lets out a little sigh, and then he looks up at Dan with a wide smile on his face. “Would you like to try the fruit before you go?


	3. Takeout

“Herbert!” Dan’s voice comes from upstairs, and Herbert sets down what he’s working on. 

“What?” He calls back, not moving from his desk, scribbling to mark down the results of his latest round of tests in his notes. 

The sound of Dan’s footsteps comes through the upstairs hall, and then the basement door opens and he comes partway down the stairs. “What do you want to eat? There’s practically nothing in the fridge. Did you lose that list I gave you yesterday or did you just decide to ignore it?” 

Herbert turns away from the desk, stripping off his gloves and throwing them into the trash as he does. “I honestly don’t know what you’re talking about.” He says as he heads for the stairs, and Dan backs up and stands in the hall, leaning against the door of his bedroom and watching Herbert come up. 

“So you lost it, then.” Dan says in a long-suffering tone, and Herbert gives him a look. 

“I’m sorry, the shopping is not usually at the forefront of my mind on the way back from the hospital, Dan.” 

Dan shrugs. “Fine, but we have no food now. Because you didn’t get any. Even after you told me you were going to.” 

Herbert closes the door to the basement behind him and pats Dan’s shoulder. “This is what takeout is for.” 

“Fine.” Dan says. “Pizza? Pepperoni and sausage?"

Herbert wrinkles his nose. “Hm. I’d prefer not. I don’t eat meat.” Dan looks at him. “What?” 

“ _Y_ _ ou _ don’t eat meat?  _ You _ ?” 

“Why is that odd?” 

“You have  _ body parts _ in  a _cooler in the basement_ .” 

Herbert raises his eyebrows. “I don’t eat them, Daniel.” 

Dan throws his hands in the air. “Fine. Mexican from that place on Sixth and Grand?” 

“I found that giant rat I reanimated last week in their back room so I think not.” 

“Jesus Christ.” Dan covers his face with his hands. “I took Susie from anesthesiology there on Tuesday.” 

“I know.” 

Dan looks ready to strangle Herbert, and Herbert can’t help the delighted giggle that escapes him. 

“Chinese?” Dan says weakly, and Herbert shrugs.

“That’s fine. Get some of that soup we got last time, I liked it.” Herbert walks past Dan and pats his shoulder. “I’m going to take a shower.” 

“You are a horrible little wretch of a man, you know that?” Dan says. 

“You love me.” Herbert says, with all the confidence of somebody sure of the answer. He listens to Dan grumbling all the way into the kitchen to call the Chinese place, a grin spreading across his face. 


End file.
